This post should be a sticky!!! Seriously.
I struggle to decider the weather patterns of the places when I am doing exactly what you said and you just broke it down in two paragraphs!!

:bowing, as always

Thanks! This rather crude approach works for me, your results may be different. For me, the insights developed over a long time... and a mix of successes and failures, as well as a chance to visit some of these areas and experience at least a brief moment of the climate. My "Aha!" moment was walking into the living room of the owner of Ecuagenera (Pepe Portilla) and seeing a bunch of large, happy standard Cymbidiums. Since I know a thing or two about Cymbidiums, this told me volumes about potential similarities between climate at home and at 8000 ft in Ecuador)